WORKERS' SHAREHOLDING. It is one of the correctives of wage labor, through which workers and employees obtain ordinary or special shares in the same enterprise in which they are employed.
The idea of workers' shareholding arose from the need to eliminate the drawbacks of simple wage agreements, among which is the failure to proportion the worker's remuneration to the conditions of the business, and, above all, the failure to establish a bond of genuine solidarity between the two factors of production: capital and labor. An attempt was made to remedy this deficiency through profit-sharing, but this system has not always yielded the hoped-for results; moreover, it does not make the worker a true partner in the enterprise, and thus makes it difficult for him to share in the prosperity and fortunes of the productive organization of which he is a part. For there to be a solid union among the actors in the economic process, they must all have ownership of the means of production. Profit-sharing alone does not constitute a partnership, because it does not create a legal entity distinct from that of the contracting parties. It was then thought to supplement and perfect the mixed participation of all parties when the wage system is applied, a system that satisfies the principal requirements of a corporate regime and reaps its advantages. In workers' shareholding, in fact, the worker receives the portion of profits due to him in the form of shares, which confer upon him the same rights as capital shares: namely, participation in dividends, a deliberative voice in general meetings of the company, and representation on the board of directors.
Workers' shareholding may be individual or collective; in the first case, the holder of the shares is the individual worker; in the second, the holder is some body representing a group of workers. If this group is a trade union, the system is called trade union shareholding. Workers' shares may come not only from profits, but also from particular savings made by the worker, or from a simple gratuitous grant by the employer.
Not long ago, workers' shareholding was promoted by Christian socialists as one of the most effective means for the harmonious composition of classes and the attainment of industrial peace. It is well known how Monsignor Pottier, the distinguished Belgian sociologist, advocated it in his writings and social action. Today, a quarter of a century later, Pottier’s optimistic predictions about workers' shareholding have not been fully realized. This is not to disparage the system as if it were utopian: perhaps too much confidence was placed in it, but certainly not without good reason. It would therefore be regrettable, as Neil-Breuning wisely observes, for the concept of workers' shareholding to be entirely abandoned on the grounds that not all the hopes placed in it have been fulfilled. Expectations must be confined within the bounds of the possible, and then resolutely seek the paths to success (Die soziale Enzyklika, Cologne 1932, p. 113).
Evidently, workers' shareholding is not a panacea, but if, in enterprises where it can be applied—namely, in capitalist enterprises—it is adopted with fairness and wisdom, it cannot fail to benefit the elevation of the worker and the improvement of relations between capital and labor. It is certain that thus far it has met with some success in various places, such as a reduction in strikes, an increase in output, and greater stability of personnel.
Of the two forms of workers' shareholding, the individual form is the one that best meets the psychological needs of the worker, in that it stimulates his personal interest and is a concrete sign of the increased esteem in which he is held within the enterprise. There can be no doubt that this institution perfectly aligns with the social directives of the Church. It suffices to recall what Pius XI suggests in *Quadragesimo Anno*, when he addresses the subject of wage labor. In the present social conditions, he says: “We consider it more prudent that, as far as possible, the labor contract be tempered somewhat by the partnership contract, as has already begun to be done in various ways, to the no small advantage of the workers themselves and of the employers. Thus the workers become participants in both property and administration, and in a certain measure share in the profits received” (n. 30).
Azione: V. CATEGORIA.